Last year, Apple was embroiled in controversy as it acknowledged that it had been slowing down older iPhones with the intention of making them last longer. In particular, Apple wanted to improve battery performance of the iPhone past its usual lifespan.
This is an undertaking that saw the firm get into a court battle with AGCM. Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM), Italy’s competition and market authority, launched an antitrust case against the tech giant which saw it settle a $5.7 million fine.
The object by AGCM was that Apple was silently slowly down its phones without informing customers or creating avenues through which the customers would go back to the previous version of the software.
Apple has announced that it will continue rolling out the throttling effect on iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X.
Even though reports of throttling first came up last December, the tech giant announced that it had started this practice in 2016 as an effort to give the iPhones a longer lifespan. As you use your lithium-ion battery, it degrades over the years with many factors coming into play – high current demands and weather.
A combination of these factors could lead to the phone shutting down altogether. In order to prevent your iPhone from periodically shutting, Apple released an automatic software update, which no one had the ability to stop from automatically updating their iPhone.
Even as it did so, Apple skipped a crucial step – letting its tens of millions of customers know that the update placed a brake on the iPhone as the battery aged. Furthermore, the iPhone owners were stopped from being able to halt the throttling, even for those who were willing to take in the declining speeds despite the tradeoffs.
The company also forgot that adding a new battery could have been a possible solution.
Customers were enraged and Apple had no other option than to address these concerns. It came up with a battery replacement program whereby you can get a new battery for your iPhone 6 or later at $29, down from $79. Even if you are out of warranty, you can get these batteries.
When the iOS 11.3 was made available in March, Apple gave its customers the ability to refuse the ‘peak performance capability’ feature.
Apple has in the past reported to United States Senators that the hardware updates the firm releases are not necessarily meant for the newest devices.
A key position that the company has maintained is that all its devices are kept under constant performance management so that various components can be protected.
According to a support page designed to give more info on the feature, the iPhone 8 and later devices are will continue receiving software and hardware updates with the aim of improving its accuracy on estimating the phone’s power needs and the battery’s power capability to maximize the system’s overall performance.
When you update your iOS to iOS 12.1, you make it possible for the system to precisely and mitigate unexpected shutdowns. Therefore, iPhone 8 and later devices are more likely to have an improved standing with regards to performance management.
How to Stop Throttling iPhones
Are you worried by the annoying throttling feature? Worry not. You are now able to check whether the battery is the culprit for your slowing gadget.
Follow these steps to do so: Settings > Battery > Battery Health
You will be shown report on your battery’s maximum capacity, which lets you understand the extent to which the battery has degraded. If your iPhone just developed a battery-related shutdown, there will be a toggle for disabling throttling.